These Happy Golden Years, The First Four Years, & Farmer Boy | Prairie Primer

The majority of our time with these books was spent in reading and discussion, so I'm sharing this post for the sake of documenting that we have completed these units in The Prairie Primer. :)

These Happy Golden Years


For These Happy Golden Years, we read Attack in the Rye Grass (aff link) for our missionary story. This is a story about Marcus and Narsissa Whitman. We talked about courtship verses dating, and my husband and I shared stories with the kids on how we met and married.

I met my husband while I was in the Dental Assisting program at our local college.


I had just been accepted into the Dental Hygiene program, and I was a single mom to three wild blonde headed boys. I knew I wanted to be married again, but I didn't want to waste time on anyone who didn't love God. So the first question I asked him when he called to make plans for our date was, "How is your walk with the Lord?" 

We agreed to go on a first date to make sure we wanted to go on the prearranged date (a church banquet), and during our dinner date, I interviewed him for three hours. :D 

I asked him questions to get to know him, but the one that stands out to me the most was, "Do you want a wife, or do you want to be a husband?" He had to think long and hard on this one, but he finally said, "I want to be a husband because in being the husband God has called me to be, I can help my wife be the wife God has called her to be." Good answer, huh? God has sure called him to live up to that answer. :) 

Truth is, I wish he would have asked me the same question in return. I'm not sure how I would have answered. Looking back, I was scared to raise my three boys alone. I knew the statistical success of raising my boys to love God were not that great without a dad who loved the Lord, so I may have just wanted a husband, LOL! I'm not sure I really wanted to be a wife! I love being a mom, but I've never been very good at being a wife in all honesty, and after one failed marriage, I was scared. 

I guarded my heart through the dating process, but when I laid all the cards out on the table, he had the qualities of someone I would want to marry. He was mature for his age (though 6 years younger than me!). He was a hard worker and would be a good provider. He had a house. He was humble (he drove an old rusty pick up truck that he still drives to this day). He was cute, athletic, kind, compassionate, and so much more.  Plus, he always wanted to be a young dad and have a lot of kids, so the fact that I had three boys did not daunt him. Not only that, he had saved himself for me, so I felt like I was being given a second chance.  

From the time we met until we married, it was a short five months.


I married him up on the mountain at this beautiful spot. I wore a sun dress and bare feet, and my boys picked me wild flowers for my bouquet. 


We talked about advice I gave my older boys which was inspired by a young couple that met at a church camp and whom followed this protocol with success. I thought it was great advice and passed it on to my boys.

I encouraged my boys to get to know a girl from a distance and watch how she interacts with family, friends, children, and others. If they think she has the qualities they are looking for in a wife, get to know her more in a group setting - without her knowing their intentions. (When you are dating, you tend to put your best foot forward, so the goal is to get to know her outside of dating if possible).  Then when they feel like she is someone they'd want to date, make their intentions known and date with the intention of marrying her. This is not a promise to marry her, but that you only date someone that you would marry.

Guard your heart and hers throughout the process and ask: do they have the qualities of someone you'd want to marry? They should know in advance what type of girl they want to marry. I encouraged each of them to make their perfect girl list, and ask "What does her list look like?" Then become that person. Read Have You Made Your Perfect Girl or Guy List? to see what I mean!

My advice for my daughter will be based on my own experience and from what I learned from the book Secrets of an Irresistible Woman: Smart Rules for Capturing His Heart by Michelle McKinney Hammond (aff link). I read the first chapter of this book, prayed the prayer at the end of the chapter, and then prayed I would not meet a guy until I finished reading that book! I met my future husband a month after I finished reading it, and her advice worked! It's really just good old fashioned advice a Christian mother would give her daughter and practical truths that women overlook when they are involved emotionally, unless they are taught otherwise.

One thing that stands out to me that we talked about at length is how Laura took a stance by not promising to "obey" Almanzo. This was wise and beyond her years.

I had planned to make Honey and Cream Taffy, molasses Popcorn Balls, and a wedding cake for Laura, but I was doing the GAPS protocol and could not bring myself to do it when we read it. Later, when I was feeling better, I made honey popcorn balls with the kids.

Honey Popcorn Balls





The First Four Years


For The First Four Years, we learned about the facts of life with a wonderful book called Almost 12, and The Boy's Body Book and The Girl's Body Book - all from Science F which I bought to cover the science in Prairie Primer.


We started memorizing Psalm 46. We also read the assigned selections from Little House in the Ozarks. I would love to sit and read more of this book to the kids (or even by myself).

There is so much more I could say - I haven't even talked about the impact these books had on me personally. I loved them both and am so happy they are now a part of my children's childhood.

Farmer Boy


We just finished reading this book last week. This was a really great book that I would have loved to have had more energy for. We saved it for last, but we all wished that we would have read it just after Little Town on the Prairie when we first meet Almanzo. However, reading it after made sense too because we were able to see how Almanzo's life growing up influenced his character.

This unit is full of a lot of hands on projects, and well, we're at the end of a full year of Little House on the Prairie, so some of these will be added to our summer bucket list of fun things to do. For now, I'll share that we had an "Almanzo" family night with hot buttered popcorn, apple cider, and apples, and that is all we did. :)

7 comments

  1. What a wonderful love story.
    Blessings, Dawn

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  2. Michelle, Thank you for sharing your beautiful story. So encouraging and inspiring. Much love and Shalom!

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  3. Thank you, and shalom to you too, Julia! ❤️

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  4. I love your story. And I love the prairie primer you are using. My 9 year old is just now getting into the books, so I'm keeping this in mind. I wish I could send her to school with you and your kids!

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  5. Your love story is beautiful and this has me excited to use the Prairie Primer.

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  6. Thank you, Megan! The books themselves should be a part of every girl's childhood, so it's neat that she is getting into them!

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